Category: On This Day

A Troublesome Stove: Fire at W. D. Wilson’s

A Troublesome Stove: Fire at W. D. Wilson’s

Posted on by spuddled

I, even I, couldn’t handle bringing you my intended story this week. Suffice it to say it involves children and rabies. Those of you who know my penchant for morbid stories and true crime may be surprised by this turn of events. We’ll call it a Mother’s Day miracle. Instead, I have a cheerful story about a fire for you.

The fire itself did not take place on 12 May, but the brief newspaper article describing the event did appear exactly 113 years ago today, in the Sisseton (South Dakota) Weekly Herald. According to the article, a kerosene stove “caused considerable trouble” when it “blazed up” suddenly. This happened at the home of W. D. (Wellington David) Wilson, my great-great-grandfather. At that time, he had been living in Sisseton for 16 years; he was born in Louisville, New York, and had lived in Iowa and Nebraska before his 1895 move to South Dakota. You can read his obituary here if you want more details on the non-conflagration aspects of his life.

The Sisseton Weekly Standard
12 May 1911

The article regarding the fire goes on to state that “Mrs. Wilson” showed “rare presence of mind” by throwing the kerosene heater outside, where the fire burned out. Her hands were burned painfully but she was not seriously injured, and their home escaped damage as well. This “Mrs. Wilson” is not my great-great-grandmother Lucinda Blanche (Davis) Wilson, who died in 1894 at age 35, but W. D.’s second wife, Bessie (Olson) Wilson, whom he married about the time he moved to Sisseton. At the time of the fire she would have been about 39, with 4 children of her own.

I was trying to envision what the kerosene stove in question might have been like and found a 1911 advertisement for a Perfection Smokeless Oil Heater. The ad copy describes the marvels of the warmth provided by the Perfection Heater and even touts its portability (though it also says it weighs 125 pounds) and how it is “easily carried from room to room.” Or, apparently, easily chucked outside when it tries to burn down your house.

Tragedy at Resort, Michigan: the Death of Bert Burdell Jones

Tragedy at Resort, Michigan: the Death of Bert Burdell Jones

Posted on by spuddled

I have another sad story for you today. The subject this time is my third cousin three times removed, Bert Burdell Jones. He was born 3 November 1867 in Mason County, Michigan. He was the eldest child of James E. and Margery M. (Taylor) Jones. Margery’s parents were Elias and Sally (Willson) Taylor. Elias’s sister Mary Eunice was the second wife of my 4G-grandfather John Wilder Wilson, and these Taylor/Wilson connections produced the “Moses Taylor letters” I’ve discussed here before.

Bert appears in census records with his parents in 1870 in Kalamo, Eaton County, Michigan, and in 1880 in Little Traverse, Emmet County, Michigan. In the column in the 1880 census where infirmities are noted, next to Bert’s father’s name is noted “rupture.” This is one of those mystery medical descriptions I have yet to pin down; according to the Find a Grave website, James Jones died in 1883 at the age of about 45; whether this was related to his “rupture,” I do not know.

On 27 March 1890 in Harbor Springs, Emmet County, Bert married Minnie Caroline Dietz. He was 22; she was 19. Ten years later Bert and Minnie were enumerated in Resort, Emmet County, along with children Harold V., born July 1893; Dewey M., born April 1898; and what looks like Vyolynn (born April 1900), but in later records appears to be Verlyn. Bert is working as a day laborer.

The 1903 Petoskey, Michigan, City Directory lists Bert B. Jones as a farmer with 70 acres of land and a total property value of $1200 in Resort. In 1910 the family is still in Resort; no street names are given for the section in which they appear, but the enumerator has labeled it the “Jones Neighborhood.” Bert is listed as a general farmer; son Harold, 16, is a laborer in a lime kiln. M. Dewey and Verlyn E. are still in the household; Minnie is listed as having given birth to four children, but with only three still living. A daughter, Lottie L. Jones, had been born about 1896 and died 15 March 1897; she is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Petoskey. Others in the Jones household in 1910 included Minnie’s father Amos Deitz [sic]; a German neighbor, Frank Newman; and a 5-year-old niece, Agnes Jones. Agnes was the daughter of Bert’s brother Sidney; though Sidney was still living, Agnes’s mother had died sometime between 1900 and 1908, and it was not unusual in these situations for motherless children to be taken into other households where they could continue to benefit from the influence of a mother figure.

Interestingly, by 1920, 14-year-old Agnes seems to have become so much a part of Bert and Minnie’s family that her relationship is listed as “Daughter” in the census. Verlyn is still living in the household, as is Amos Deitz, now 84, and a new addition, 5-year-old James Bradford Jones, Bert and Minnie’s last child.

It is difficult to say what happened over the next two years, as I have yet to find any newspaper articles or other sources that would provide more context. All I have is a very clinical death certificate for Bert. His death is noted as taking place on 5 May 1922 in Resort, and he is listed as a 54-year-old farmer who had lived in Resort for 41 years. Mrs. Minnie C. Jones is the informant, and the coroner has listed Bert’s cause of death as “Suicide by strangulation (hanging).” Bert’s Find a Grave memorial adds the detail that this death took place in his barn.

A couple of years after Bert’s death, Minnie married Peter J. McEwen, before dying in 1930 at age 60. Eldest son Harold, by age 24, was missing the fingers off his left hand at the first joint but worked as a railroad telegraph operator until his own tragic death in 1949 at age 56 when he was struck by a freight train in front of his station. Merton Dewey died in Kalamazoo at age 57, Agnes Jones at 59, and Verlyn at 69. The baby of the family, James Bradford, lived until 2001, dying at age 87; one hopes he found sufficient joy in his own life to mitigate so much tragedy.

Find a Grave Memorial ID 128957467
Marie from Mackwiller: The Death of Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann

Marie from Mackwiller: The Death of Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann

Posted on by spuddled

On this day we remember Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann, my third great-grandaunt, who died 169 years ago today. She was born on 10 October 1793 in Mackwiller, Alsace, the daughter of Jean Pierre and Caroline (Bach) Hoffmann. As of 2021 Mackwiller had a population of 539. Marie was the eldest of at least eight children: sisters Caroline, Christine, Catherine, and Marguerite, and brothers Nicolas (father of our Jacob Hoffmann), Peter (who died at age 1), and Pierre.

I don’t know a lot of details about Marie’s life; the information I do have comes from the various records of the Bas-Rhin region of Alsace. It appears that around 30 June 1819, Marie gave birth to a son, listed in civil records as Jacques Hoffmann. Jacques lived only three months and 9 days, dying on 9 October 1819. On Jacques’s death record, where the name of his father would ordinarily be listed, it states instead (in French) “the name of his father is unknown to us.”

Nonetheless, some seven years later, Marie was married, to Jean Chrétien Friedrich, eight years her junior. They were married in Mackwiller on 4 February 1826. On 2 August of that year they had a son George, and in 1828 they had a daughter Catherine. The family appears in the 1836 and 1841 censuses for Mackwiller. Both husband and wife are listed under their middle names and as Protestants. There are records from August 1831 of a daughter Catherine born to Chrétien and Marie Elisabeth (Hoffmann) Friederich, so it is possible the first Catherine died young and a second daughter was named after the first.

Marriage Record of Chrétien Friederich and Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann

In 1850 George (or Georges) married Henriette Rose, 29 years old. Then on 28 April 1855 in Mackwiller, Marie Elisabeth died, aged 61. In August 1856, her widower died, in Mackwiller as well. As I mentioned, there are a lot of gaps in the family’s history, which means more investigation is needed. A genealogist’s work is never done. Yay!

Death Record of Marie Elisabeth Hoffmann
Another Victim Added: The Death of Myrtle Barrow

Another Victim Added: The Death of Myrtle Barrow

Posted on by spuddled

Today we return to our regularly scheduled program of morbid deaths. Specifically, in this case, the death of Myrtle Barrow, my fifth cousin twice removed. She was born 29 August 1899 in Athensville, Greene County, Illinois, to Robert Newton and Fannie (Canatsey) Barrow, part of the Sweeney line on my paternal side.

In 1900, 9-month-old Myrtle appears in the census in Athensville along with her parents and 3-year-old brother “Loyd.” In 1910 the family was enumerated in Barr, Macoupin County, Illinois. Myrtle’s older brother (Lloyd Irvin) is now listed as Irving, and three more boys have joined the family: Robert, 9; Carlos, 5; and Ebert, 2. By 1920 the family is back in Athensville, but Lloyd is living on his own with his wife and family, and Myrtle now has a sister, 8-year-old Fannie.

Myrtle would not survive long enough to be enumerated in 1930. Ninety-seven years ago this past Friday at a little after 12 p.m., a series of tornadoes struck central Illinois, in particular Calhoun and Greene Counties. The Jacksonville Daily Journal of 20 April listed eight known dead at that time, including a schoolteacher, Annie Keller, who died when she was struck by a falling rafter as the Centerville schoolhouse collapsed. She had ordered the schoolchildren to get under their desks and had only just gotten them all in place when the rafter fell; all the children survived.

Myrtle Barrow did not die in the initial storm. Instead, 97 years ago today, she succumbed to the injuries she had sustained in Greene County two days earlier. Again the Jacksonville Daily Journal provides a detailed account. According to an article that appeared on 22 April, Myrtle’s brother Robert testified in the inquest held after her death (aside: wouldn’t her cause of death be fairly obvious?), stating that he had been in Athensville when the tornado struck his home. He returned home afterward to find his father at a neighbor’s, but received word that his sister had been injured. Myrtle was found 100 yards from the family home lying in a couple of inches of water. Flooding made it impossible for anyone to take her to the hospital until the afternoon of the following day. Though Myrtle was unable to provide a lot of detail, she was lucid enough to tell doctors at the hospital that she had seen the tornado approaching and taken shelter in a shed.

Though doctors had originally thought Myrtle was improving, this improvement did not last, and she died at the Passavant Hospital in Jacksonville about 2:30 p.m. on 21 April 1927. The inquest, unsurprisingly, blamed the tornado for her death, but provided detailed specifics: “shock and hemorrhage, the result of disarticulation of right knee joint, fracture of left tibia and fibula and the left humerus. Injury acquired in tornado in Greene County.” According to the National Weather Service, the storm was an F4 and claimed a total of 11 lives, including Myrtle’s. One small consolation is that by surviving the initial storm, Myrtle did not die alone; the Daily Journal article tells us that her brother Robert was with her in the hospital when she died. A very small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless.

One of Fairbury’s Highly-Esteemed Citizens: the Death of Samuel Demler

One of Fairbury’s Highly-Esteemed Citizens: the Death of Samuel Demler

Posted on by spuddled

Today we commemorate the death 83 years ago of Samuel Albert Demler, my first cousin three times removed. He was one of seven children of Wilhelm K. and Anna (Keller) Demler and was born 10 March 1881 in Fairbury, Illinois. My great-great-grandmother, Mary (Demler) Slagel, was his paternal aunt. “Sam Demler” appears in the 1900 census, living on Chestnut Street in Fairbury with his parents and 5 surviving siblings (the youngest, Anna, had died in 1889 at the age of two). Sam is listed as a Teamster.

Congregational records for Zion Lutheran Church in Peoria note that on 8 July 1906, 25-year-old Samuel A. Demler married 19-year-old Mary M. Mammen. Both were from Fairbury. By 1910 Samuel and Mary were living on Walnut Street in Fairbury with their children Anna L., aged 1 10/12, and a newborn son Sam A. Samuel’s occupation is listed as lumberman. On his World War I Draft Registration card, Samuel is described as tall with a medium build, brown hair, and brown eyes. His employer is listed as the lumber company at 106 South 1st Street in Fairbury. Information posted by Dale Maley on the “Fairbury, Illinois – Today, Long Ago and Somewhere in between” Facebook group includes photos and history of this lumber operation which began as Jesse Stevens’ lumber yard and was then bought by Alexander Lumber after Jesse’s death. A photo from the Facebook group shows Samuel Albert, his son and his daughter at the lumber yard, ca. 1935.

In 1920, still on West Walnut Street (and now with a house number, 308), Samuel is listed as manager of a lumber company, and two more children have been added to the family: Rose, 7; and Victor, 4. From Google Maps it appears this house no longer stands, though Fairbury residents are welcome to investigate and let me know for sure. It also appears that the house was located just across the street from the lumber yard where Samuel was employed. The Demler family still lived in that same house in 1930, paying $10 a month in rent. The census also confirmed that the family had a radio. Samuel continued as manager of the lumber company, and son Samuel A., Jr., was a yard man there as well. An additional child had been added to the family, son Dewey, 8 years old.

By 1940 only Dewey was still left at home with his parents. He had completed 3 years of high school and was still in school that year at age 18. The enumerator noted that Samuel had completed six years of school, and wife Mary four. Samuel continued as manager of the lumber yard, having earned $1620 the previous year (or possibly $1120; the handwriting is a bit difficult to decipher). This would be roughly equivalent to $25,000-$36,000 in 2024.

Less than a year after the 1940 census was taken, Samuel’s health declined. He had been ill for several months when, following a stroke, he died on 14 April 1941 at the Fairbury Hospital. He was buried at Fairbury’s Graceland Cemetery. Samuel’s obituary in The Pantagraph details not only his management of the Alexander Lumber Company but also his role as Fairbury fire chief for 35 years. The Fairbury Blade of 18 April provides even more color. It notes that Samuel had undergone an operation on 25 February and had been recovering but had a setback and was taken back to the hospital on 13 April, where he died the following day.

The Blade describes Samuel as follows: “Although of a quiet and retiring disposition, Mr. Demler was one of Fairbury’s well liked and highly esteemed citizens and took a keen interest in the affairs of the community.” It also notes how five of his employees at the lumber yard were able to move on to manage lumber yards of their own due to his leadership skills. Two of these employees were his sons Samuel and Victor. Though only 60 years old when he died, it seems Samuel Demler nonetheless succeeded in making a positive impact in the lives of his family and of the whole community in which he took a keen interest.

Samuel and Mary (Mammen) Demler Headstone, Graceland Cemetery
A Respite from Tragedy: The Long(ish) Life of Maria Asal

A Respite from Tragedy: The Long(ish) Life of Maria Asal

Posted on by spuddled

This week’s post brings a much-needed break from the tragic and gruesome stories we’ve uncovered of late. It’s still the anniversary of a death, but I don’t know any heartbreaking details this time around, and our subject lived to the age of 83. Unfortunately, I don’t know a lot of any kind of details other than birth, marriage, and death dates, so I’m going to give you those.

Maria Asal was my eighth great-grandmother. She was born 22 March 1646 in Neuenweg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, to Christian and Barbara (Sick) Asal. She married Hans Vollmer, who was born 29 November 1636 in Bürchau, Baden-Württemberg, and the couple had a daughter, Catharina Volmer (I’m not sure where the second “l” went) on 21 December 1681 in Bürchau. Additional details regarding Maria’s life are slim; her husband Hans died on 28 April 1717, and she died 295 years ago today, on 7 April 1729, both in Bürchau.

Their daughter Catharina married Johannes Bollschweiler, and they had a son named Mathias, who was born 30 August 1715 in Neuenweg. He married Maria Hassler, and they had a daughter named Catharina, born 28 November 1748 in Bürchau. This Catharina married Johann George Demler, and they had a son named Johannes Demler. He was born 24 November 1780 in Niedereggenen, Baden-Württemberg. On 1 September 1811, also in Niedereggenen, Johannes married Anna Maria Raz, and they had a son, Johan Demler. He was born 22 September 1816 in Niedereggenen and there he married Catherina Maria “Kate” Reser on 28 January 1845. This couple had three children: Wilhelm K., August Frederick, and Maria or Mary. Mary was born 17 January 1855 in Baden, and she, along with her brothers and parents, emigrated to America in December 1864. By 1867 or so the family was in Livingston County, Illinois. She would go on to marry Samuel Slagel, and their daughter Emma was my great-grandmother, marrying Paul Hoffmann, Sr., in 1902.

And to think I once believed I wouldn’t be able to trace my maternal side many generations back…

FamilySearch records:
Germany, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials, 1500-1971
Pekin Girl Dead: The Sad Death of Margaret Lowry

Pekin Girl Dead: The Sad Death of Margaret Lowry

Posted on by spuddled
1 April 1925 Pantagraph

Next year I’ll try to intersperse some more cheerful events in with all the dark ones. This one is about as grim as they come (and on Easter Sunday, no less). Margaret Lowry (or Marguerite Lowrey, or Margaret Lowery; sources differ), my sixth cousin three times removed, was born 11 January 1903 in Manito, Illinois, and died 99 years ago today in Spring Lake, Illinois. She is one of my paternal Illinois relatives, for the record; I have them on both sides. She was the daughter of John Clayton and Josephine West (Golden) Lowry. One of at least 8 children, Margaret’s was only one of several tragedies that befell the Lowry family. Her eldest sister Bessie died in 1919 at age 31; I haven’t been able to determine her cause of death. Then her brother George W. died in 1921 at age 29; his story would make its own blog post, as he and his wife (or possibly not his wife) died in a double suicide (or possibly a murder-suicide) when the house was filled with gas as one or both of them slept.

Margaret herself first appears in the 1910 census in Manito. Her father’s occupation is listed as cranesman on a dredge boat. He is 43 years old. Her mother appears as “Josie,” 38, married for 22 years and with 8 children, all of whom at that time were still living. Several of the older children had left home already; the remainder of the household consisted of Addie, 11; Marguerite, 7; and Blakesley, 2.

By 1920 the family had moved to Spring Lake, Illinois, and the household occupants had shifted again. John is now an electrical engineer at a pumping station; his wife is listed by her full name of Josephine; and living with them are sons George W., 27; Walter J., 24; Margaret H., 17; Blakesley G., 12; and a granddaughter, Mable J. Dwyer, 5.

Within a couple of years of this census enumeration, it appears that Margaret’s health took a turn for the worse. The newspaper articles telling of her death note that she had been in ill health “for several years” prior to 1925, and that she had been a patient at the Oak Knoll sanatorium near Mackinaw for a year. Interestingly, this is the same institution where William Jay Claton’s widow Magdalena would later find employment as a cook.

A few months before her death Margaret came home from the sanatorium but was still unwell; I wish I had more specific details about her illness. Whatever it was, it must have been too much for Margaret, as her ill health was determined to be the cause of what came next, according to an article that appeared in the Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph on 1 April 1925. The day before, Margaret’s mother, along with three of her sisters and a brother all left home to travel to the Pekin Hospital to visit a sick grandchild there. Margaret’s father John also left home at 1:00 for his responsibilities at the pumping station where he was still employed. When he came home at 5:00 he found Margaret dead in the bedroom from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A coroner’s inquest was held, which is, presumably, where the official cause of Margaret’s despondency was determined to be her ill health. Two days later Margaret was buried in the Spring Lake Township Cemetery; she was 22.

Find a Grave Memorial #153436613

I am, as always, struck by the thought of how hard it must have been for Margaret’s parents to go on after losing a third child. Josephine would die in 1932 and John in 1934; their daughter Addie outlived them but herself died at age 48. Most of the remaining Lowry children lived relatively long lives, mercifully: Jesse died at 81, Walter at 79, and “Blakesley,” or Blake Golden Lowry, at least made it to 62, though his wife died at 39 when the car in which she was riding crashed into a gasoline truck.

That is a lot of sorrow for one family. I have no words of my own to make any of it make sense. But it is Easter Sunday, and while that does not take away the pain the Lowry family endured, it can at least give consolation and hope in the face of tragedy.

Image by Ray Shrewsberry • from Pixabay
Washed in the Blood: The Death of Lucy Loofboro

Washed in the Blood: The Death of Lucy Loofboro

Posted on by spuddled

Today’s family history death is that of my third cousin five times removed, Lucy Jane (VanHorn) Loofboro. Her death was not gruesome like last week’s, and sadly not uncommon, but no less tragic. Lucy was born 13 August 1839 in Ohio, the daughter of Job and Prudence (Davis) VanHorn, another in our Seventh Day Baptist lineage.

Lucy’s short lifespan meant that she was only enumerated in a single census. In 1850 Job and Prudence were living in Stokes, Ohio. Job was 43 and a farmer with real estate valued at $1000. He is listed as being born in Virginia. The remaining family members were all born in Ohio: Prudence, 42; Maria, 19; Almarine, 17; Obadiah, 15 (and listed as a farmer himself); James, 13; Lucy, 11; Mary, 9; Joshua, 4, and Samuel, 5 months.

It appears that sometime in the next six years the family moved to Iowa. In 1856 in Welton, Lucy (then 16 or 17 years old) married her 24-year-old second cousin, Isaac Newton Loofboro. Also a Seventh Day Baptist, Isaac was born in Clark County, Ohio in 1832, the son of Davis and Mary (Maxson) Loofboro.

It’s possible that sometime within the following year the newlyweds moved to Illinois, as the few remaining records which include Lucy come from that state. On 4 March 1857 Lucy gave birth to a son, Augustus Sumner Loofboro, but she would have less than three weeks in which to experience the joys of being Augustus’s mother. On 24 March 1857, 17-year-old Lucy died. The Seventh Day Baptist newsletter The Sabbath Recorder of 16 April 1857 provides details about Lucy’s death as well as her character in an obituary submitted from Farmington, Illinois.

The article states that Lucy’s death was of puerperal fever, and that she knew from the beginning of her illness that it would prove fatal. Even so, she fought against the thought of her early death (and, surely, against having to leave behind her husband and new baby). But in the end, according to the author of her obituary, she became resigned and even “anxious to depart and join the happy company who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Lucy is buried in the Harkness Grove Cemetery in Peoria County, Illinois.

The Sabbath Recorder, 16 April 1857
Lucy Jane Van Horn Loofboro
Find a Grave Memorial ID 18964281

Puerperal fever, also known as postpartum infection or childbed fever, was (and is) a bacterial infection of the reproductive tract suffered after childbirth. If contracted, the fever usually sets in between 1-10 days after the birth of a child. According to Wikipedia, 6 to 9 women in every 1000 births during the 18th and 19th centuries suffered from puerperal infection, and about 1/3 of those who contracted childbed fever died. Many of the illnesses may have resulted from lack of hygiene practiced by doctors at the time. Improved hygiene as well as antibiotics have reduced the number of maternal deaths since Lucy’s day.

Lucy’s widower Isaac would remarry in 1863 to Annie M. Davis. Isaac and Annie had five children, but only two of them would outlive their parents. Young Augustus Sumner did not survive his father either, though he did live long enough to be enumerated in the 1860 census. He appears with his father that year in Bloomfield, Iowa, one dwelling away from Isaac’s parents. On 21 August 1868, however, he died at the age of 11; according to A History of the Loofbourrow, Loughborough and Lufburrow Families by Milton R. Lufborrow, his death was due to snakebite. He is buried in the Seventh Day Baptist Cemetery in Welton, Iowa.

Augustus’s father would survive until 1907, dying in Welton, Iowa, at age 75. His second wife outlived him by almost 11 years, dying at age 79 in 1918. Of the two children who did survive Isaac and Annie, the eldest, Horace, moved to Wisconsin and died in 1943 at 78, and the youngest, Lewis, also moved to Wisconsin and survived until 1961 when he died at age 89, the last of the Loofboro family to depart and join those made “white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Right Eye Is Out: The Grim Tale of William Jay Claton

Right Eye Is Out: The Grim Tale of William Jay Claton

Posted on by spuddled
William J. Claton Gravestone
Find a Grave memorial #74488863
Photo by Linda T

It’s time for another gruesome family history installment. Today’s victim is William Jay Claton, my fifth cousin four times removed. He had more than his fair share of terrible events befall him; the title of this post is not even related to his horrific death

William was born 19 June 1877 in Illinois, the son of William H. and Sarah E. (Cline) Claton. In 1880 the family was living in Tazewell County, enumerated one household away from the elder William’s sister, Florence, and her family. Also living with Florence was her and William’s mother Elizabeth (Hawkins) Claton, as well as their paternal grandmother, Margaret (Gaston) Claton.

The entire Claton family seems to have suffered from incredibly bad luck (or health). Of the five family members in the household that year, three had entries made in the “Sick” column by the census enumerator. William, Sr., 36, has “Flesh Wound” recorded by his name. Lewis F., 13, has “Hip Disease” recorded, and the “Disabled” box checked. Frank E., 10, also has the “Disabled” box checked, along with a cryptic “Ruptured” in the “Sick” column. William, Sr., is not marked as “Disabled,” so perhaps his flesh wound was only a recent injury. “Willie,” aged 2, appears also, with no sickness or disability noted (yet). Lewis would live to the age of 73, but Frank would die at age 46.

The 1900 census shows William and Sarah, still in Tazewell County. Sarah’s enumeration notes that she had given birth to four children, three of whom were still living. In 1882 another child had been born and died, a daughter, Anna Alida. Also with William and Sarah were the younger William and his new bride, Magdalena (born Magdalena Snyder on 31 August 1881). William and Magdalena were married 31 May 1900, just in time to be shown as a married couple as of the Census Day enumeration date of 1 June.

By 1910 William, Jr., and Magdalena were living in Pekin, Illinois, at 360 S Capitol Street, a house built in 1902 that still stands. William is listed as being the owner of a saloon. With the couple are their children Louisa, 8, and “Wilber,” 2. In 1912 the family is still living at 360 S Capitol; they appear in that year’s Pekin City Directory as “Wm. J., lab[orer], and Mrs. Maggie Claton.” The same directory lists a number of different saloons in operation, but William’s name isn’t specifically associated with any of them.

The next appearance of William I have found is his World War I Draft Registration Card, dated 12 September 1918. Here his full name is listed, along with his birthdate and an address of 608 Derby, Pekin, Illinois. This house no longer appears to be standing. William is listed as a laborer at the Corn Products Refining Company on South 2nd in Pekin. He is described as tall, with a medium build, gray eyes, and light hair. All pretty standard fare until the section where the registrar is asked to describe any physical disqualifications in detail. Here the registrar has written, with bland understatement, “None except right eye is out.” There must be a story here, but unfortunately, I have yet to find any details. I did learn that the Corn Products Refining Company was created in 1906 through a merger of a number of U.S. corn refiners. It produced both Argo corn starch and Mazola corn oil. It has undergone a number of mergers and name changes since that time and is now known as Ingredion.

In 1920 William and Magdalena were enumerated in Spring Lake, Illinois, one household away from William’s brother Lewis. With them were Wilbur, now 11, and William E., 8. It appears that by this time daughter Louisa had married (or had at least moved out on her own), as she would live on until 1989. William is listed as being a farmer by occupation.

Less than two years later, however, William seems to have changed careers again, leading to his tragic demise. The Metamora (Illinois) Herald of 24 March 1922 describes the event of 102 years ago today in grisly detail in an article titled “Meets Horrible Death.” Some of you may want to skip ahead to the next paragraph. According to the author, William was at the Liberty Yeast Corporation plant in Pekin and was helping to unload coal with an elevator when his foot was caught in a belt. He was dragged into the machinery and “terribly mangled.” The article describes how both feet were torn off and his limbs “crushed into a pulp up to the hips,” and added, almost as an afterthought, “he also received internal injuries.” Mercifully, the article also states that he died instantly. One wonders if having only one eye might make an individual more susceptible to missteps in situations like this one.

William was laid to rest in Lakeside Cemetery in Pekin, leaving his widow Magdalena to raise two young boys on her own. In 1930 she was enumerated as “Margaret Clayton,” 48, at 1009 Summer Street in Pekin, along with both Earl and Wilbur, then 19 and 21. They were living in this still-extant house along with the owners, Alexander and Leone Anderson (and their three children), who listed the home’s value as $4500. Magdalena’s occupation is listed as leather worker at a saddlery.

The passage of another ten years finds Magdalena living at the Oak Knoll Sanitorium in Mackinaw and working there as a cook. She would survive a further 7 years before being buried beside her husband at the age of 65. However, according to her obituary, the last five of those years she spent as a house mother in a sorority house in Colorado Springs. I have yet to iron out those details, but it sounds like she continued to find purpose until the end of her life.

Son Wilbur died at age 58 and is buried in Pekin’s Glendale Memorial Gardens, and William Earl served in the U.S. Army and died at age 66 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington State. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Lacey, Washington. When William’s sister Louise died in 1989, she was also buried at Woodlawn Cemetery. One hopes that William Jay Claton’s “horrible death” really was instantaneous, and that his widow and children were able to overcome this tragedy as they moved forward with their own lives.

“whereas Joseph Waters…died”: The Death of Joseph Waters

“whereas Joseph Waters…died”: The Death of Joseph Waters

Posted on by spuddled
Joseph and Celah Waters Gravestone
Pisgah, Illinois

This week we remember another death, though there is nothing gruesome about this one. It appears to have been just your standard tragic loss of a husband, father, and grandfather. Joseph Waters, my 5G-grandfather, was born 4 January 1773, possibly in Baltimore, possibly in Amherst County, Virginia. He was the son of Isaac and Kitty (Hawker) Waters.

His early history is a bit murky, but on 27 November 1798 he married Celah Sweeney in Stanford (Lincoln County), Kentucky. Celah was the daughter of Moses and Elizabeth (Johnson) Sweeney; Moses’s burial plot features in an earlier blog post here. In 1806, Casey County was formed from a portion of Lincoln County, and it was in Casey County that Joseph’s household was enumerated in 1810 and 1820. Between 1823 and 1824 Joseph served as the sheriff of Casey County; he is recorded as being in attendance at the monthly court sessions held at the courthouse in Liberty, the county seat. This would seem to suggest some level of importance in the community.

About 1825, however, Joseph and his family moved to Morgan County, Illinois. On 1 May 1826, according to records from the General Land Office, Joseph completed the purchase of 80 acres of land in Morgan County. His household was enumerated in that county in 1830 and 1840. During their marriage, Joseph and Celah had a large number of children, possibly as many as fifteen. The eldest I have found was Polly, born in 1799 and died in 1805, and the youngest was Charles W., born in 1825 and living until 1896. Celah herself was born in 1782, which would make her 16 and 43 when her eldest and youngest children were born if this information is accurate. Between Polly and Charles, the following children were born: William, Daniel, Isaac, Zachariah, Elizabeth, John, Martha, Cassandra, Nathan, Milley, Sarah O., Frances, and Margaret. Cassandra, my 4G-grandmother, married my favorite-named ancestor, Nimrod Canterbury Murphy, in 1830.

On 19 February 1842, Joseph Waters executed his Last Will and Testament. Within it he bequeathed his wife “Celia” all his land and farming equipment, along with $40, furniture, and two horses. Everything else was to be sold and the money loaned out at interest, though if his widow preferred to leave the land, she could receive $400 instead. Joseph also included a provision that if his youngest son Charles stayed with and cared for his mother until her death, he would receive “one bay horse colt.” The will also prevented his children from selling their interest in the property until after their mother’s death and granted Celah all the same rights Joseph had had, other than cutting or selling timber. His son Zachariah was named executor.

Twenty-seven days later, the witnesses to the execution of Joseph’s will appeared in court in Jacksonville, Morgan County, were “duly sworn,” and confirmed that Joseph was now deceased. The court proceedings also noted that Zachariah would be required to complete an inventory of his father’s estate, and the probate judge authorized Zachariah to move forward with his duties as executor. One portion of the probate documentation reads “Know ye, that whereas Joseph Waters of the County of Morgan and state of Illinois, died on or about the 10th day of March A.D. 1842…”

Joseph’s widow Celah outlived him by only a few years. She died in Morgan County on 18 September 1845. The two are buried in the Union Baptist Church Cemetery in the unincorporated community of Pisgah, Morgan County, Illinois. I have visited this cemetery and seen their headstone in person. At the time of Celah’s death, their youngest son Charles was only 19; he would not marry until 1847. It seems likely he did remain with his mother until her death and, presumably, received the “bay horse colt” bequeathed to him in his father’s will.